1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink filling method for pouring ink into an ink tank to be mounted to a printer, an ink filling apparatus, and the ink tank to be properly filled with the ink by the ink filling method.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, various types of printers have been used, and as their examples, laser printers and ink jet printers are known. The ink jet printer is used to form an image by discharging an ink droplet onto a recording medium, and currently, structure in which an ink tank containing ink liquid is detachably mounted is generally used.
In such an ink tank, an ink holding member capable of holding ink liquid therein, using urethane foam whose film has been removed, felt or the like, is housed within a housing thereof.
As the simplest method of methods for filling the ink holding member in the ink tank with ink, there is known a so-called compression filling method for setting the interior of the ink tank in an atmosphere-open state and filling it with ink by pressurizing using compression means such as a syringe through an ink filling opening provided in the housing of the ink tank.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-112905, there has been disclosed an ink filling method for focusing attention to a bubble remaining within the ink holding member in this compression filling method and applying oscillation such as supersonic wave to the ink tank in order to remove the bubble.
On the other hand, in recent years, such an ink holding member may be configured by fibers made of thermoplastics material such as, for example, PP (Polyurethane) and PE (Polyethylene) in terms of a so-called environmental problem.
In the ink holding member made of thermoplastics fibers, however, when the ink holding member is filled with ink under pressure, it is difficult to uniformly fill the ink holding member with ink in a short time because the fibers display hydrophobic nature to ink, depending upon the ink to be used.
By using the method displaced in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-112905, the present inventor et al. conducted an experiment of filling the ink holding member with ink by applying oscillation to the ink tank, but could not cause it to uniformly hold the ink.
The present invention has been recalled by focusing attention to the above described problem peculiar to resin fibers, and its main object is to provide an ink filling method and apparatus having few variations, capable of substantially uniformly filling the ink holding member with a predetermined amount of ink although it is a simple method.
It is a second object according to the present invention to provide an ink tank, to which the ink filling method according to the present invention is suitably applied.
As an ink filling method according to the present invention, there is provided an ink filling method for filling, with ink, an ink holding member in an ink tank, which comprises an ink holding member for holding ink, an ink supply port for containing the ink holding member and supplying the ink in the ink holding member to the outside, and a housing having an atmosphere communication port for communicating the ink holding member to the atmosphere, comprising the steps of: pouring a predetermined amount of ink into the housing in a state in which the ink holding member is opened to the atmosphere; and filling the ink holding member with the ink by imparting, to the ink poured, an inertial force, which is greater than a sum of a static ink holding force of the ink holding member and a dynamic resistant force to movement of the ink.
As an ink filling apparatus according to the present invention, there is provided an ink filling apparatus for filling, with ink, an ink holding member in an ink tank, which comprises: an ink holding member for holding ink; an ink supply port for containing the ink holding member and supplying the ink in the ink holding member to the outside; and a housing having an atmosphere communication port for communicating the ink holding member to the atmosphere, further comprising: an ink supply mechanism for pouring ink into an ink filling opening in the ink tank; and an inertial force imparting mechanism for imparting, to the ink to be supplied by the ink supply mechanism, an inertial force, which is greater than a sum of a static ink holding force of the ink holding member and a dynamic resistant force to movement of the ink.
As an ink tank according to the present invention, there is provided an ink tank comprising: an ink holding member for holding ink; an ink supply port for containing the ink holding member and supplying the ink in the ink holding member to the outside; and a housing having an atmosphere communication port for communicating the ink holding member to the atmosphere, wherein the ink holding member is made of a multiplicity of fibers having hydrophobic nature to ink, wherein a predetermined amount of ink is poured into the housing through the ink supply port in a state in which the ink holding member is opened to the atmosphere, and an inertial force, which is greater than a sum of a static ink holding force of the ink holding member and a dynamic resistant force to movement of the ink, is imparted to the ink poured, whereby the ink holding member is filled with the ink, and wherein the fibers are focused in the substantially same direction intersecting a direction of the inertial force imparted.
As an ink tank according to still another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an ink tank comprising: an ink holding member for holding ink; an ink supply port for containing the ink holding member and supplying the ink in the ink holding member to the outside; and a housing having an atmosphere communication port for communicating the ink holding member to the atmosphere, wherein the ink holding member is made of a multiplicity of fibers having hydrophobic nature to the ink, wherein a predetermined amount of ink is poured into the housing through the ink supply port in a state in which the ink holding member is opened to the atmosphere, and an inertial force, which is greater than a sum of a static ink holding force of the ink holding member and a dynamic resistant force to movement of the ink, is imparted to the ink poured, whereby the ink holding member is filled with the ink, and wherein the fibers are focused in the substantially same direction as a direction of the inertial force imparted, and at least one of end surfaces of the fibers on both sides abuts upon the inner surface of the ink tank.
In this respect, various types of means in the present invention can be formed so as to implement the function. For example, functions implemented within computers by means of an exclusive hardware, a computer imparted with an appropriate function by a program, and an appropriate program, and combinations of these functions are allowed.
In the present invention, when ink is supplied from the outside, it is called xe2x80x9cpouring,xe2x80x9d and when ink is held by impregnating the ink holding member with ink, it is called xe2x80x9cfilling.xe2x80x9d Further, the ink in the present invention is liquid at normal temperatures which can be discharged through an ink jet head, and for example, treating liquid capable of improving the image quality of another ink and the like are allowed.